


Gem

by unrestedjade



Category: Legend of Zelda
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 06:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4008913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unrestedjade/pseuds/unrestedjade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ganondorf is at an age where his body is going through changes, and needs some help with a relevant head wound.  A one-shot based around a nifty idea from anluz on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gem

**Author's Note:**

> anluz made a post a while back speculating about that gem Gerudo have on their heads, and how cool it would be if the gem itself grew out of the skull rather than being jewelry. So, here’s a little un-edited noodling around with the idea.

The young prince winced as Nabooru unwound the dressings.  The linen was sticking to the wound and it pulled at his skin.  

“Don’t fidget,” she scolded.  Itshould have been one of his mothers doing this, but they had not yet returned from the temple, and it was past time for the bandages to be changed.  She worked from the memory of last year, when it had been her patiently having her wound tended, carefully rolling up the bandage and trying not to tear the blistering skin beneath.

“It’s so itchy,” Ganondorf complained, fingernails digging into the bench.

“I’ll cut your hand off if you try to scratch.”  Nabooru smirked when her cousin made a very un-princely whine.  “Don’t be such a baby.”  She remembered how unpleasant this was, weeks of relentless headaches and an itch so bad her own mother had threatened to tie goat stomachs around her hands. Scratching wasn’t worth the risk of a scar.

As she removed the final layer, something caught the sunlight.  “Oh!”

“What?”  Ganondorf sat up straight, visibly fighting the urge to raise his hands to his head.  “What is it?”

“It’s starting to break through,” Nabooru said.

“It is?”  Excitement and anxiety chased across the prince’s face.  “How does it look?  Is it normal?”

Nabooru had picked up a hand mirror, but withheld it, a mischievous grin splitting her face.  “Oooh, it’s hard to see through all the pus,” she said.

“What?!”  Ganondorf’s eyes grew wide.  

“Yes,” Nabooru said, “I think it’s infected, cousin.  They shall have to cut it out of your head. Perhaps they can find a pretty rock to fill the hole with.”

Her cousin was pale as a ghost.  She could see his lip quivering.  “Oh, don’t cry now, cousin.  I was merely teasing you.”  Nabooru winked and held out the mirror.

Ganondorf snatched the mirror.  “You ass!”  He wiped his eyes with the back of his other hand.  “And I was not crying.  It stings, and my eyes were watering.”

Nabooru hummed.  “Who is the bigger liar?”  He was ignoring her now, though, examining his forehead in the mirror.  It was difficult to see through the peeling skin, and even harder to see in the polished bronze of the mirror, but a sliver of his gem was peeking through.  It was yellow, like hers.  The most common color, and she knew it would please him to have the same sort of gem that nearly everyone had.  

She darted forward to slap his hand away.  “Don’t touch it, stupid!  It’s still soft.”

He didn’t even glare at her, enraptured by the burgeoning stone in his head.  “I love it.”  

“It should look just like your mother’s when it’s done.”

A moment’s confusion passed over Ganondorf’s face.  Neither of the Twinrova had yellow gems.  “Oh,” he said.  “Yes, I suppose that’s right.”  It was, unlike most Gerudo, one of the only parts of him that would strongly resemble his mother.

She let him admire the gem a little longer before deciding it was time to continue.  “Alright,” she said, “I have plans today that don’t involve watching you gawk at yourself in the mirror.  Tip your head back, so I can clean it.  It’s not as though you shall never see it again.”

Ganondorf pouted while trying very hard not to look like he was pouting, but obeyed.  Nabooru took up a bowl filled with the special cleansing water the physicians kept on hand. No hands could touch a gem before it was fully healed, so she very carefully poured the water over the wound as she remembered her mother doing, flushing out anything that had gotten under the bandages that could make the wound fester and spoil the gem.

Something added to the water made it burn– to kill infections, she’d been told.  She let Ganondorf’s pained hiss pass without comment.  She well knew how much such cleanings had hurt.  After the water had dried up in the sun, she set about winding the new bandages.  

“How much longer do you think it will be?”

Nabooru shrugged.  “I cannot say.” She frowned as she tried to get the bandages as snug as Kotake had with little success.  “It’s showing now, so it can’t be too much longer.  Two more dressings, perhaps?”

Ganondorf sighed.  “I’d be very glad of that.”  When she had finished, he tied his headscarf over the dressing to cover it.  

“You look like a sour little grandmother, cousin.”

He stuck out his tongue at her.


End file.
